Into the Void

The Briefcase Incident

The man who found them, or Falco--according to David and Lucy, drove the group and former hostages back to the warehouse. Upon arrival, the group found two more trucks parked outside their destination, meaning that the others returned before them. As soon as Falco parked his truck, Jesse and his team helped the four strangers out and even yanked the purple-haired boy off the dark-haired woman's leg. Putting the boy down, the five led the strangers into the warehouse. As soon as they got inside, they found it filled with even more refugees than before. At the sight of it, Jesse and GingerBrave were bug-eyed at the increased number of refugees inside the building.

With a whistle, Falco crossed his arms and said, "Well, what do ya know? That's a lot more than what we found last time."

"Hey, Falco, was it?" Jesse said, getting the man's attention. "You said you work with Maine, right? For how long, exactly?"

"As long as I can remember."

"Huh."

"Hey, you guys came back uninjured!" a familiar voice said.

In response, Jesse, GingerBrave, Lilac, Lucy, and David turned to their right to find Kai approaching them. In his hands was a tray with ten cups filled with what smelled like tea.

"Kai!" GingerBrave exclaimed as the red ninja came closer. "We have so much to tell you about! We were on the road and these two guys were driving a van! Inside were four people and Lucy immediately recognized them as hostages! So, we all worked together to stop the van and free the hostages, but one of the captors had a rocket launcher! The guy fired the rocket and Lilac kicked it, but it hit the middle of the road! We all survived, but our car was destroyed in the explosion and we didn't have a ride back to the warehouse. That is until Falco found us and brought us back here! You should've been there to see it!"

"Sounds like a chaotic moment. Here, have some tea." Kai brought the tray closer to the five, each of them taking a cup.

"Thanks, Kai." Jesse took a sip of his tea.

"Woo! This is good stuff!" David exclaimed.

"That's Ninjago tea for you. Always delicious!" Lilac gave him a wink.

"Oh, by the way," GingerBrave said. "Word on the street says that Rebecca found one refugee with a silver briefcase."

"Oh yeah! Jay took it to Pilar so they could take a look at it together," Kai replied. "They think it's some kind of weapon. You guys go ahead and meet them at Pilar's lab. We'll take care of the refugees you found."

"Where even is Pilar's lab?" Jesse asked.

"David and I will take you there," Lucy replied, gesturing at him and the cookie to follow. "Come on."

With that, Jesse and GingerBrave followed Lucy and David, leaving Lilac and Kai with the four refugees. Once they were gone, the red ninja looked at the four and offered them tea, each of them gratefully taking a cup from the tray. Once the tray was finally empty, Kai waved at the four refugees as they all walked away in different directions.

"Hey, Kai?" Lilac said, getting the red ninja's attention. "Do you think we'll have enough time to gather all these refugees before...you know..."

Kai became quiet briefly before he replied, "My master Wu would always say, 'Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today.' Time waits for no one, Lilac, so we need to collect as many refugees as we can find here before that monster comes, and we have to be quick about it."

"I know, but do you think this would be faster if we had the other Pillars and Max with us?" Lilac asked.

"I think so," he said with a nod before turning his head to look outside.